


Guardian Angel

by flyingorfalling



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: BAMF Pepper Potts, Bodyguard AU, F/M, Pepperony Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-10
Updated: 2019-08-10
Packaged: 2020-08-13 19:37:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20179615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flyingorfalling/pseuds/flyingorfalling
Summary: Pepper Potts is assigned to protect Tony Collins, Howard Stark's illegitimate son. Tony has become the target of Amon Stark, his older half brother, who allegedly murdered his father to get millions in inheritance.





	Guardian Angel

**Author's Note:**

> Based on this [Tumblr post](https://dailypepperony.tumblr.com/post/185799065487/bodyguard-au-when-pepper-potts-assignment-to) and written for Pepperony Week, Day 7. It was supposed to be a one shot, but as I started writing, I got more and more ideas for a multi-chap story so I decided to take four different points in time in hopes of maybe sparking your interest :x

“Here’s your new assignment. Take a few minutes to read over everything and tell me if you’re up for it.”

Fury handed her a folder with all the information she needed. Virginia opened the file, and saw the picture of a man. She knew that face. She had seen it on newspapers, magazines, and all over the internet—Howard Stark was everywhere. Reading through the first page of the dossier, her eyes widened. She stared at the text, waiting for her mind to wrap itself around the news it bore, then she looked at Fury.

“Howard’s death was no... It was no accident?” she asked, flipping the page to continue reading.

“We’re not sure, but it looks like his son had something to do with it. You know, it’s easy to get rich quick if your father’s pockets are full of money.” He paused. “Unless Daddy doesn’t like sharing.”

“So you think that boy killed his father to get his inheritance?”

On the second page of the report, there was another picture. This time, it was of a young man in his thirties. He was lean but muscular. His face was strong but handsome and distinctive-looking. Virginia had never seen that guy before but was immediately smitten by his looks.

“There was a catch,” Fury said, tapping his finger on the folder, and the photo she was looking at.

“Which is where this guy comes in?”

“Anthony Collins, Howard Stark’s illegitimate son. Stark didn’t want anything to do with him, but he did pay child support to the mother, Maria. Managed to keep it a secret. Now that he’s dead—“

“His son found out the money isn’t all his,” she connected the dots. “And now you want me to protect that Collins guy until Stark junior is convicted of murder?”

He nodded. “We don’t have enough evidence yet. We need time. Amon Stark’s going to make a mistake at _some_ point, and when he does, we will be there to put him behind bars. Until then, I need you to protect Collins.”

“Why me?”

“Because, believe it or not, you’re the best one I have for this job.”

Fury looked at her with unconcealed pride. Virginia Potts may still be young compared to her colleagues, who were all in their late forties and early fifties, and she may appear meek and mild on the outside, but she was fierce and brave inside, and her mind was so sharp she could slay vampires with it—well, that was _if_ they actually existed. She knew how to function under pressure better than anyone else, and Fury trusted her with not just anyone’s life but even his own.

They spent over an hour discussing the details. Fury told her that Tony’s aunt Peggy Carter had asked for a bodyguard to protect her nephew so that Virginia knew why her client could be a bit hesitant to follow orders, as he thought he didn’t need a bodyguard. Tony Collins was a tech genius whose start-up company was on the rise, generating him a great deal of buzz that meant attending public events, and therefore put him at an even greater risk of becoming the victim of an attempted murder. By the end of the meeting, Virginia had a feeling that her next assignment would be a _lot_ of work.

* * *

”I don’t need to dance with you, Mr. Collins, I’m your bodyguard,” she said, looking up at him as he held his hand out to her, waiting for her to take it.

“And I expect you to guard me at all times, even on the dance floor, Ms. Potts,” he replied, grinning at her.

“If this is just an excuse to get close to me, I quit.”

“No excuse. If I wanna get close to you, I go somewhere my brother’s snipers will have a clear field of fire and wait for you to yell at me.”

Tony knew she was pretending to be that whole suave, emotionless deadpan of a guard—she had been trying to play that role all night—but he had also seen her trying not to smile at his gold-worthy jokes.

Virginia took her job very seriously. He saw her posted outside the door or behind him during long, boring board meetings, and she kept her stance and form perfectly straight the entire time. He wondered if she ever had a good night’s sleep, because if he had to guess, he’d say she never really closed her eyes for more than an hour. Sometimes he wished he had better luck in taking her mind off the job so that she could relax for just _one_ moment. She deserved as much for being willing to give her life to protect him.

“C’mon, please,” Tony tried to get her out of her shell, his look sincere, and his eyes pleading. “Just one dance, and then you can go back to, um... doing your thing.”

Sighing, Virginia got up from the chair and adjusted her dress with the same composure that she had all along maintained. She usually wore her gun in a holster at her side, but right now, she kept it hidden underneath her clothes. She was armed with a knife, too. He had seen her buckling an extra belt under her dress to hold it. Virginia’s legs—those impossibly long, shapely legs—carried two weapons solely for his protection, and that was by far the sexiest thing he had ever known. When she took his hand, he couldn’t help but smile.

They danced, swaying to the music, entangled in a soft embrace, their bodies finding a way to communicate with each other on the dance floor. It worked beautifully. But she was constantly looking away, eyeing their surroundings, and it bothered him. That was just not how he imagined dancing with a beautiful woman.

“Can you look at _me_ for a moment and not stare at other people?” he asked, chuckling.

She gave him a lopsided smile and an exasperated, “You’re interfering with my work.”

He smirked, telling her, “As long as I’m with you, I feel like the safest person in the world, knowing you would take a bullet for me.”

“I’d take a bullet for any of my clients, don’t read into it too much,” she countered, rolling her eyes.

“Aw, you’d really take a bullet for me!”

“Are you making fun of me?”

“I wouldn’t dare,” he quipped.

“You seem to be under the false impression that I will never get annoyed with you because you’re my boss, but I’m actually _this_ close to killing you myself.”

His lips topped up in a teasing grin and his dimple popped out. “How would you do it? Would you strangle me with those gorgeous, long legs?”

Virginia felt her jaw drop. Of course she had noticed him checking her out once, but this was the first time Tony made a comment like that, and it took her completely off guard.

“You know, I always wondered... why _you_.”

“Why me what?” she growled.

“Why are _you_ my bodyguard? How _can_ you be? I mean you’re smart, and you know how to handle a weapon... I think...” Not that she ever had to use one—yet. “But if I’d be attacked, like, really needed to be protected, could you even tackle me?”

“I can tackle your scrawny ass right now and then chain you to that wall over there, if you want me to prove a point,” she said, callously.

Laughing out loud, he teased, ”I’d like to see you try.”

Tony slipped his fingers slowly down her back, just inside the edge of material of her blue backless dress, until he reached the base of her spine.

“That’s too low.” She glared at him, snarling quietly.

“I’m not even touching your as—Ouch! Fine... okay,” he groaned, as his face contorted with the pain of his finger being bent back until it almost cracked with a sound. “You’re supposed to protect me, not hurt me.”

“I knew this was a mistake,” she said with a sigh.

“Taking this job?”

“Dancing with you.”

”Hey, I think we’re doing pretty great considering everyone is watching us.”

“W–What?”

“Or maybe they’re watching us _because_ we’re so good at this.”

Turning her face away from him, Virginia noticed that almost everyone in the room was staring at them while they danced. There were even a few reporters taking pictures. She felt her cheeks flush and glanced at Tony. He was smiling at her as if it wasn’t that big of a deal. But it was. It was to her. She was supposed to keep this relationship strictly professional, but there she was, so close to him that she could feel his breath on her skin. And she let him distract her from paying attention to the scene and doing her job.

“We can’t do this... _I_ can’t do this,” she said, pulling away, but Tony held her captive in his arms.

“If you leave me standing on the dance floor, you’re making me look bad.”

“My only concern is your safety, Mr. Collins.”

He grinned. “Well, if that‘s so, then let me tell you, Ms. Potts, I feel _very_ safe right now... Here, in your arms.”

Virginia rolled her eyes, hissing out a breath. “Is everything a game to you?”

“Pretty much,” he answered, amused. “Life’s more fun that way.”

“Yeah, you know what _isn’t_ fun?” She looked him right in the eyes. “Losing a client because you’ve been careless for just _one_ second.”

Tony studied her for a minute, his grin fading slowly, and then his sloshed brain realized that something was seriously wrong with her. He had hit a raw nerve. It was almost like her controlled facade was finally beginning to crumble, and he could see the soft, vulnerable woman beneath.

“Have you...” Tony gulped down the fear that her answer would make him become emotional and cause his own facade to crack—he really wasn’t the rude bastard Virginia made him out to be. Then he tried again, “You lost someone, didn’t you?”

She swallowed hard, averting her eyes, as his question awoke bitter memories. It was a question that proved he already knew the answer since it was phrased in a way that would require her to lie if she were to deny it. But she wasn’t ready to talk about it. And they weren’t friends or anything, so she didn’t even _have_ to talk to him about it. It was none of his business.

Virginia cleared her throat, forcing the lump to go down deep inside of her, and simply stated, “I need a drink.”

He frowned. _Okay, message received._ She didn't want to talk about it. That didn't mean he was going to let it rest, though. He was intrigued now, wanting to know more about her, her life. Because if he had to guess, he would say she had quite a story to tell. There was so much more to her than she let on, and he was eager to get to know her better.

“Are you even allowed to drink on the job,” he asked, and she shook her head.

“But I need a goddamn martini,” Virginia mumbled, “Very dry, with olives, a lot of olives. Like, at least three olives.” Seeing the amused look on his face, she huffed a breath through her nose. “Why am I even telling you this? My job is to protect you, not talk to you.”

* * *

“Are you okay?”

He turned to her and looked at her in shock, stammering the words out, “Y–Yeah, I–I think so… Yes.”

“We gotta get outta here,” she said, her voice soothing as warm chocolate.

Tony was amazed at her hardiness, simply amazed. He had never encountered a woman armored at every point like a tank on a battlefield. She was that tank. Even after a bomb had gone off, blowing up his car and killing his driver—it had almost killed him, too—Virginia stayed completely calm. People were shrieking, panicking, falling over themselves in an effort to get away, while she was simply standing there, holding him by the arm, as she tried to figure out their next move.

She was sharp as a tack and just as prickly, the smartest woman he had ever met. He knew she had multiple plans and backup plans in case anything went wrong, but he was still amazed at how she could be so unfazed by what had happened when his whole body was literally shaking. He still made a conscious effort to steady his breathing, and before he could even see it coming, she tackled him down for protection. He grunted, realizing he had definitely underestimated her physically as a bodyguard. With her strength and agility, she could probably take down three men twice her size before they could even blink.

They were on the ground. The chaos as a result of the attack was a melee of noise around them. He was shielded right under the unshakable hold of Virginia’s arms. She wasn’t looking at him, she was watching for the threat. Tony didn’t know what she had seen or heard, but he could see it written all over her face—real fear, an actual fear that he was going to get hurt. And yet the fear didn’t seem to stop her. There was determination in Virginia’s eyes, too. She was determined to quell the fear by eliminating the threat with everything she had. She wasn’t going to let anything happen to him, and even though Tony knew that it was her job to protect him, the realization hit him like a stone anvil.

Virginia Potts would give his life for him. She would let herself be shot, blown up, or stabbed just so _he_ could live. What had he ever done to deserve that?

“What is it?” he asked, “What do you see?”

“Stay down,” she commanded him. “There are too many people out here, and then there’s the smoke… I don’t have a clear view of the street. I don’t know if… We need to wait.”

Tony swallowed. For the first time since he met her, she was actually making the impression as if she were worried, as if she didn’t know what to do, and that definitely wasn’t a good sign. His hands began to shake uncontrollably. He tried to hide it from her, but the look in her eyes, as she cast him a glance, made it obvious she had already become aware of it.

“You’ll be okay,” she reassured him, even flashing him a smile. “But we’re gonna stay at my place tonight. I’m not taking any chances.”

“Y–Your… place?”

Little frown lines ceased Tony’s forehead. He didn’t even know she _had_ a place. Well, of course, he did, but since Virginia was a bodyguard, he just figured she might be sleeping in hotel rooms all the time to save money on rent. She had told him once that she hadn’t really had a day off in years, so he was surprised to hear she actually had a place where she lived, a place she called home. It made him wonder what her apartment would tell him about her life, her character, and what kind of a person she was outside the job.

* * *

The first time Virginia Potts met Anthony Collins, she had thought of him as an obnoxious, arrogant little fancy brat who couldn’t stop running his mouth. He was dramatic, cocky and rude, and she had been done with him not only a month after she had taken on the assignment. She remembered the day when Tony had kept pushing her buttons until she snapped and pushed him against the wall, telling him not to mess with her. He had been visibly intimidated by her strength, even more than the moment she’d first tackled him. And after that, something had changed.

Virginia had decided to dug deeper, had gotten to know him better, and the more she did, the more she realized that the loud and obnoxious man, who was acting like a child most of the time, was just a sad boy, hiding behind all this arrogance and an inflated ego. When she looked at him now, she saw a completely different man. Tony Collins was nothing like she thought he was. His pretentious persona was meticulously constructed and engineered. He embodied it and made it a reality, and he wore it like a suit of armor around him, protecting the man who was inside, the man that had a heart. It amazed her how easy he made it look, carrying that fake skin like he owned it, but even more than that, it saddened her that Tony even felt like he had to pretend to be someone he wasn’t.

“It’s so great to see you, Pep.” He gave her a smile, as she came into the room, and she was struck by how it lit up his eyes. “I was just thinking about you.”

He was lying on the couch in front of the fireplace, one hand behind his head and the other holding a book. She couldn’t remember ever seeing him read something that wasn’t tech-related. Who would have thought that even after all this time he still managed to surprise her?

“Hey, Tony…” She watched him as he dropped his book and sat up, that smile never leaving his face. “Can we talk?”

“How about we talk over dinner? I can make us something to eat. And by that, I mean I will try not to blow up the kitchen,” he said with a chuckle.

“This really can’t wait, Mr. Collins.”

Tony’s expression turned bleak when she reverted to being formal. She couldn’t help herself. Addressing him by his last name was the only way she could keep her emotional distance, something she hadn’t done for far too long. She knew he must have a thousand thoughts going through his mind right now. She knew he knew something serious was going on from the way he was looking at her.

The expression on his face damn near broke her heart, and it was going to go a lot worse when he heard her next move, but she‘d made up her mind. She didn’t want to do this, but she had to. It was better that way—for both their sakes. It was more for his good than hers, she told herself. He was entitled to someone’s undivided impersonal attention, not a woman who was fast becoming interested in her client in all the ways a woman was drawn to a desirable man.

”I need you to release me from your service,” she cut right to the chase, her voice slightly unsteady.

Tony’s face took on an expression of deep confusion and he cleared his throat. “I don’t think I’m following you here…”

“Fury will find someone else to protect you. I just need you to tell him—“

“But why would you wish to leave?”

He raised his voice at the end of the sentence, as if he was angry with her for making that decision without consulting him first. Then he stood up and walked over to her, and she took a step back so that he couldn’t touch her.

“Why do you want to leave?” he repeated the question, his voice soft and calm now, almost a whisper.

“Because I love you,” she said, and even as Virginia steeled herself to say goodbye, the look that passed over his eyes touched a place in her heart she hadn’t known was there. Falling in love with him had changed everything.


End file.
